The farmers - Mr and Mrs Smeyan

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Background - 27 March, 2006

In the Ukraine, 18,000km2 of agricultural land was contaminated, but the forests were hardest hit. Forty percent of the woods are contaminated, totalling 35,000km2. Many of the inhabitants of the area cotinue to eat fruits and vegetables from their own gardens and they also continue fishing and gathering mushrooms and berries. This is what they are used to doing, even if it means that their intake of radioactive elements is two to five times higher than is acceptable.

One of the many thousands of homes deserted after the Chernobyl disaster.

According to the Ukraine government, this is the case for 3.5
millionpeople. In Russia, 19 regions were affected, with 2.7
million peopleliving in the area, and in Belarus a quarter of the
nation's territorywas hit by two-thirds of the radioactive fallout
from Chernobyl. At thetime, 2.2 million people were living there, a
number that has sincedwindled to 1.5 million. The area around the
second biggestcity of Gomel was particularly affected.

Grigory and Maria Smeyan, aged 71 and 77 respectively, found
themselvesuprooted after the accident. They were living 27km away
from Chernobylon the Belarusian side. Their village was evacuated
in June 1986, saysMr. Smeyan: "There was a truck for every two or
three families. We wereallowed to take one bed, a bag of potatoes
and food for three days.They gave us tinned meat, oranges and 1500
roubles per person." Mrs.Smeyan: "We used that to buy new
furniture, but we had to leave behindour animals: two cows, a calf
and two pigs of 280 kilograms each." Thezone was closed off and
they were not allowed back in: "My aunt diedand we wanted to bury
her in native soil." At the checkpoint they werestopped and sent
away. "We had to bury her in another village." MariaSmeyan is not
bothered about going back anymore, but Grigory is. "If Icould I
would go there today even. Over there the nightingales weresinging
and here there are only crows."

An often-cited story claims that in order to prevent
radioactivecontamination reaching Moscow, the clouds were
manipulated to rain overthe south-east of Belarus. In any case,
Vetka is still contaminated."The question was: would the town
survive?", says Vasily Bahajev, aneconomist and deputy leader of
the local council. "In the end there wasno evacuation. Where could
all those people have gone to? BeforeChernobyl, 37,000 lived here,
now the number is still some 20,000."

Instead of evacuating, they have tried to improve social
services andhealth care. "Gas and waterworks were installed
throughout the area.Children are given extra food and pregnant
women get vitamin supplies."The newly-built clinic and the school
are run by newly-trained staffstraight out of college. It is
mandatory for them to work in thesouth-east for some years in
exchange for their student loans.

In Vetka, president Lukashenko unveiled a new Chernobyl
monument: "Sopeople don't have to go to their contaminated villages
anymore whenthey wish to commemorate the disaster", says Bahajev.
Parts of thevillages, agricultural lands and forests remain closed
territory, butthere is hardly any supervision. Close to the
residential areas, thecontaminated areas start within municipal
boundaries and continue formany miles. They are mostly deserted,
but cows are grazing on overgrownmeadows." Bahajev: "The farmer has
refused to leave, but it is saidthat if the cows are transferred to
clean grazing grounds for two weeksbefore slaughter, the meat will
be clean and edible."